updates

Almost a month has gone by since my last post, I'm getting worse at this! Well, life has got a lot busier in the last little while, that's why.
At the beginning of August, another short term room mate arrived, Angela, who lived here for some months a few years ago. She managed to get some time off and came down for an overdue visit. And as she is a nursing student, she spent some time with me as I went about my assorted jobs in Bastion, coming with me on visits, seeing how the hospital "system" works (or not!) here, and helping me with assessments of the children in the school. She sorted me out with a binder to keep everything in, now let's see if I can remain organized!
Then on August 14, Andrew and Kate, my son and daughter-in-law, arrived. And we've been having a fine time ever since, getting around Guayaquil, visiting Bastion, and working in a trip to Banos in the mountains for a few days.
Thus the lack of time for keeping this blog under control!

But I have been wanting to update a little, let you know how a couple of people that I've written about in the past are doing now.
First Narcisa, the lady with the heart problem that needs surgery. It has all taken a very long time, but we have had a cardiac catheterization done, which showed that yes indeed, she has a hole in her heart that she was born with, but there has been little or no damage to her heart over the years, and so she is a good candidate for the surgery to repair the defect. So that's good news. She is booked for surgery in October, after I get back from my visit to Canada. We just have a decision to make as to what kind of care she'll be admitted to in the hospital, general, where the care probably isn't the greatest (okay it's not good at all!), or more of a private arrangement, with much better care, but much higher costs.

And then there´s Michelle, the little girl who was diagnosed with leukemia, and for whom so many have been praying. She has been out of the hospital for a few weeks now, getting chemo on an outpatient basis, and she is doing well! She is eating well, staying healthy, having minimal side effects from the chemo, although she has lost most of her hair. She was able to pay a visit to her class one day last week, first time since she was diagnosed 2 months ago, and she was SO happy to be there, and those kids were SO happy to see her. She still has a long road ahead of her, but it was good to see her and her parents looking so much better than before.